


Valiance

by kyrilu



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Voldemort Wins, Dark Crack, Dark Lord Harry Potter, M/M, Stockholm Syndrome, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 00:23:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12569512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyrilu/pseuds/kyrilu
Summary: After returning from his diplomatic missions overseas, Lord Valor doesn't quite know what to think of Delphini, the daughter of Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort.





	Valiance

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is vaguely set in the [Valor AU](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8818636), created by acnara and trippingonflatsurfaces, though it isn't completely compliant. It can be read standalone.
> 
> The basic premise is that in the Cursed Child timeline where Voldemort wins, the phrase 'For Voldemort and Valor' means there's another ruling Dark Lord named Valor.
> 
> Happy Halloween and happy Harrymort day! :D I love you all - Chelle, Pepa, Mel, Jamie, Jessie, Eveiss, and Janet. ♥

"It could be Rodolphus’," Valor said, looking at the child carefully. It was a small thing of pink flesh, curled up in its cradle.

Voldemort rolled his eyes. "She is not Rodolphus’."

That night, Voldemort found Valor crouched over a pit of snakes. The baby was inside the pit, hissing and laughing, squirming under shining scales and forked tongues.

"So, she's not Rodolphus’," Valor conceded.

Voldemort took out his wand. Valor half-expected to feel the sharp knives of the Cruciatus, but by this point in time, they had reached something of an understanding.

Instead, Voldemort summoned the child from the pit. She floated up in his arms, and he began to disentangle the snake dangling from around her wrist.

The child made a soft sound.

"I think she wants to keep that one," Valor said.

Voldemort halted his effort. "It was a Dark ritual. An heir conceived by Bellatrix, so that she will become a Seer. The child has not expressed it yet, but the time will soon come. You cannot say that Seers do not have their uses."

"We can kidnap any old Seer."

"But the _ssssymbolisssm is rather sssignificant,"_ Voldemort said, slipping into his habit of lapsing into Parseltongue when frustrated. " _The daughter of the Dark Lord who can sssee the future._ "

"I think you went too far indulging Bellatrix with this claim," Valor said. "For Merlin's sake, didn't your resurrection ritual involve Nagini's venom? You became snake-like," he gestured to Voldemort's ethereally pale serpentine features, "and it makes one wonder if you could inherit—er—other things."

Voldemort nearly dropped Delphini. "Potter. Are you asking me whether I can lay eggs, which you want to father?"

"Nagini is a female snake. You could have--"

"No," Voldemort said. He swept out of the room, Delphini tucked against his chest and his black robes swirling, and Valor made a face and wondered what he should do with the pit of snakes.

 

* * *

 

 

In another timeline, Gellert Grindelwald was dead, felled by Voldemort's Killing Curse and determination to master the Elder Wand.

In this timeline, Voldemort had been busy playing with his pet Chosen One, ruling Britain, coming up with a catchy slogan, etc., etc.

( _"'_ Magic is might _'_ is very vague," Harry said. "It doesn't tie into your brand. You're obviously trying to copy Grindelwald with this dramatic alliteration business. Have you ever watched a commercial? Muggles are much better at this."

That earned him a Cruciatus. Ah, the early halcyon days.)

Grindelwald was mostly left alone in that isolated prison of his. He was old and decrepit, but it was always a good idea to have a backup Seer on hand.

Valor Apparated into the tower. Like Voldemort, he wore dark robes, but he lacked the menacing inhumanness. He simply looked like a young man with black hair and green eyes, his skin slightly tanned, a leftover of his political ambassador adventures in China over the summer.

He approached Grindelwald’s cell.

"Do you need help with a motto again?" Grindelwald asked. “I already talked to Tom.” His voice was laced with mockery.

Valor raised an eyebrow. “Really? He asked you--?”

“Do you think he came up with ‘For Voldemort and Valor’ by himself?”

“Yes, actually,” Valor said. “It’s so simple and obvious that I’m guessing that he rejected all of your suggestions and decided to use his name and mine.” It was a bit of a surprise to come back from his travels and find everyone crossing their hands over their hearts and saying that little mantra.

Bellatrix hated it so much. She spat out his name with venom, and loudly talked about Delphini after doing so.

“I never came up with a title or alternate name for myself,” Grindelwald said, leaning against the stone wall. “Dark wizards these days are rather conceited. I heard your Tom has a daughter. Who is she? Lady Wrath? Lady Viper?”

“Delphini, the Augurey,” Valor said curtly.

Bellatrix, who was busy with political and military training duties, had passed off the bulk of her parenting responsibilities to Euphemia Rowle and Rodolphus. Rowle owned an Augurey that little Delphini constantly set all her snakes upon.

Voldemort was often amused by Delphini’s antics. At the memory of the fondness on Voldemort’s face, Valor grimaced.

Grindelwald laughed. “Ah, so this is about your sad relationship issues. This is a first. I’ve been consulted for advice about visions, dark magic, and political systems, but never romance counseling. I can’t say I don’t have personal experience.”

“Nobody wants to hear how you fucked Dumbledore,” Valor said. “This is consultation about your Seer abilities, in fact. The Dark Lord wants a timeline about how her abilities might evolve, seeing as most books on Divination are utter nonsense.”

Ignoring Valor, Grindelwald went on: “Tom and Lestrange having a child means that they have something you don’t. She is a biological, physical manifestation of their relationship. She is valued for her Divination capabilities. She has Tom and Lestrange’s blood within her, the combined ancestries of Slytherin and the House of Black.

“And Tom is sending you on _errands_ for his and that woman’s child? You must feel slighted. How audacious of him. If I were in a similar position to Tom, I would reassure my co-ruler that I was still faithful. I would give him sweets and colorful robes and books. We would properly raise the child together as our own, disallowing the mother from using it to raise her status.”

Valor closed his eyes and fought down the urge to throw any nasty curses Grindelwald’s way. He was just here to get information. Right.

“You wouldn’t be in my lord’s place, because Dumbledore dumped you,” Valor said mildly. He flicked a piece of parchment through the cell bars. “Fill this out, Grindelwald. Your Seer knowledge.”

Something in the air seemed to shift. Grindelwald picked up the parchment without reading it. He looked up at Valor and said in a soft voice, “Because I didn’t resort to torturing Albus to get him on my side, Harry Potter. We had very…interesting…consensual encounters during the war and while I was imprisoned here, nevertheless.”

First of all, Valor didn’t need those mental images.

Secondly, Valor flinched, as if slapped. Yes, he remembered screaming for days on end. He remembered blood and pain. He remembered Voldemort forcing himself into his mind, their identities blurring. He remembered begging Voldemort to scale back the effort hunting for Ron and Hermione.

He remembered the Dark Mark being carved on his abdomen with magic. Snake into skin, black ink biting. Harry murmuring, over and over: _my lord, my lord, my lord._

When it was finished, Voldemort touched the tattoo with those cold hands of his. He made it dance and burn underneath his palms. Then he held Harry down and kissed him, snake tongue twisting in his mouth and against his lips, and he said in Parseltongue: _Your name is Lord Valor._

Now, in Nurmengard, Valor was shaking. Grindelwald was staring at him with his head inclined, his dark blue eyes unfathomable.

“Don’t call me by that name,” Valor said.

Only Voldemort called him by his old name, familiar and personal, as a threat or taunt or affection. To the rest of the world, Valor had been remade and reborn.

Grindelwald gave him a smile. “The past always has a way of coming back to us. That’s the way the future plays out, choices and themes reoccurring over time.”

He sounded so much like Albus Dumbledore, then.

“Owl the parchment by tomorrow,” Valor said, turning to leave.

“Very well, I’ll humor you,” Grindelwald said. “Thank you for visiting, Lord Valor.” His tone was light and mocking over Valor’s name. “I hope the girl doesn’t continue to give you grief.”

 

* * *

 

 

Grindelwald sent the Seer data the next day. The envelope was defiantly addressed to Harry Potter and Tom Riddle. On the back of the parchment, Grindelwald had also included alternate slogans they could use.

_-Pureblood Power_

_-Making Hisstory_

_- **Asp** irations for a Better World_

_-Hiss Off, Muggles_

_-Heed the Scales of Justice and Lord Voldemort’s Killer Snake_

_-Fangs to Voldemort and Valor, the World is Free_

_-Magic is Bite_

_-Boa to the Dark Lords of the New Age…_

“Is this simply a list of snake puns?” Voldemort said.

“Yes.”

He was about to burn it before Voldemort stopped him and told him to visit Delphini with the Seer information.

Right. Doing errands for that child again.

* * *

 

Valor expected to see Euphemia Rowle watching the child, and he was surprised to discover that the girl was with Cedric Diggory.

Cedric was utilizing the snake pit as a playpen for Delphini, reading a book and keeping an eye on the child. He had his arm lazily draped on the armchair he was reclining on, his Dark Mark exposed.

“Hey, Lord Valor,” Cedric said cheerily.

“Cedric,” Valor said, with a nod. He never quite knew how to interact with Cedric, under the circumstances, but it was always best to be civil since they were on the same side.

After Valor had been branded with the Mark, Cedric clapped Valor on the back and said, “Glad to see you’ve come around. I’ve always liked you, despite the Triwizard thing, but you realize it wasn’t fair, right? But bygones are bygones. You’re one of us. I won’t have to kill you like Neville – poor kid, he should have picked the winning side.”

That kind of friendly sociopathy, Valor thought, was more terrifying than Voldemort himself.

Valor said: “Where’s Rowle? The Dark Lord told me to fill her in about Delphini and the Inner Eye.”

“Samhain festivities are tonight, remember?” Cedric said. “We’re taking turns, me and Euphemia and Rodolphus.”

Valor had almost forgotten that it was Samhain. It was Halloween. “I’ll wait for her to return. You can join the celebration right now, if you like.”

Cedric blinked, putting down his book. “Are you sure? Do you know how to take care of Delphini? Feeding her with her bottle and changing her nappies…?”

Distantly, Valor remembered residents on Privet Drive pushing their children onto Arabella Figg. He had often helped her tend to them. “I’ll be fine. Go enjoy yourself.”

Cedric bounded from the armchair. “Then I’ll go. Thanks, my lord. I appreciate it. I hope there’s enough Muggles left for me to sacrifice.”

Cedric disappeared with a pop of Apparition. Valor, unexpectedly, let out a sigh of relief.

It was just him and the child. Valor moved closer to the snake pit and watched as Delphini swam in the pile of snakes. It looked like someone had conjured more for her.

Delphini’s eyes looked like Tom Riddle’s, deep and dark, but the shape of her face was close to Bellatrix’s, soft and curved rather than the sharpness of Riddle’s. She was still very small – yet she had grown over the months Valor had spent traveling overseas to make political alliances and treatises.

Today was Halloween, Valor thought.

It was evening, and the moon was full and bright. He could hear the Samhain festivities beginning: loud drunk voices and the background chanting of spells. The magic in the air seemed to sing.

“ _Hullo, Delphi,_ ” Valor said in Parseltongue, trying the nickname out. It fit, he thought, and he resolved to call her Delphi from now on.

Even though she was a Parselmouth, too, she couldn’t properly formulate a conversation. Instead, she hissed, and Valor could sense a question…she was searching for someone.

“ _Your father’ssss busssy with Ssamhain_ ,” Valor said. _“It’sss a party for grown upsss._ ”

She didn’t respond to that, but she seemed to accept the explanation. She went to her snakes, naming them with eager hisses.

Valor began to talk. He told the girl about China and Russia and everywhere else he’d been during his diplomatic mission. He told her about the snakes he’d talked to. He told her about the mountains and fields and rivers and the sea.

He had been accompanied by Rabastan Lestrange and Daphne Greengrass. They were instructed to kill him, if he tried to escape or have a crisis of morals, but it was unnecessary.

He had found himself thinking of Voldemort, kilometers apart from his technical captor, touching his fingers to his Dark Marked stomach and missing him more than anything else. Delphi had been born right before Valor departed, and Valor knew—he knew—that she didn’t fit into his strange relationship with Voldemort.

But he couldn’t blame her, even if he wanted to.

I know what it’s like to be born into this, Valor thought. He knew what it was like for your life to be based around prophecy.

Delphi made a sound like the cry of a bird.

A moment later, Rowle’s pet Augurey, hanging from her cage in the corner, echoed her. Valor automatically glanced at the window, and he saw the gathering storm clouds. He could smell the rain in the air.

“You knew,” Valor said, “before the Augurey.”

Delphi smiled. Valor grinned, took her into his arms, and he started humming.

It was a half-forgotten song that his mother used to sing to him, although he wasn’t aware of it. Severus Snape, passing by the doorway, did a double take.

From the shadows, Snape studied the man and the girl—his eyes narrowed, his face wrinkled in weary concern—and then he stalked away. He had told Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger that Harry Potter was dead.

And, to be fair, he was.

* * *

 

Voldemort found Valor and Delphi curled on the armchair, asleep. He woke Valor with a quiet hiss _._ Valor set Delphi down in her cradle, and followed Voldemort out of the room.

Voldemort was so, so alight with magic from the Samhain celebrations. It was as if he was bleeding it. Letting it flood through their connection. It made Valor feel light-headed.

“She made her first prophecy,” Valor said, with a crooked smile. “Can you believe that? This soon? It wasn’t a proper vision, but Grindelwald’s notes were right; she’s starting to develop it. It’s not like Trelawney’s rubbish.”

“’Trelawney’s rubbish’ was how I found you,” Voldemort said.

“Mm, not the same,” Valor said. “You never had to sit through her classes.”

“I see you’ve revised your opinion about Delphini.”

“Somewhat. I’m sure when she’s a teenager, she’ll be as ridiculous as your diary self.”

“Who you killed,” Voldemort reminded him, in a low murmur, and Valor made a muted noise of contrition.

Voldemort set his hand on Valor’s shoulder, and it felt like a burst of static. Samhain magic was powerful stuff.

Voldemort’s eyes glittered, dark and hungry. He bent over and kissed Valor, and Valor let him take whatever he wanted. After all, he’d taken everything else already.

* * *

 

“Your name is Lord Valor,” Voldemort had told him, after he had seared the Dark Mark on his skin and kissed him.

“Valor?” Harry asked. “Like bravery, like Gryffindor? It’s not an anagram like Voldemort. But I suppose there aren’t any good anagrams you can get out of—“

“ _Don’t sssay it,”_ Voldemort said, pressing his finger to Harry’s mouth. “ _You are Valor.”_

“It sounds like something from a fairy tale,” Harry said. The pain on his stomach still stung, and he felt like he was about to pass out. “Only you have my real name.”

* * *

 

“ _Harry Jamesss Potter,_ ” Voldemort said, between kisses.

It was Halloween, and he remembered green light and screaming and a boy named Harry Potter. But the memory passed, as if it had never been, and he was Lord Valor once again.


End file.
